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Friday, December 13, 2013

Honoring Hayden

Hayden has been doing so well in his charter school. For the first marking period, he made the honor roll by getting all A’s and B’s. The Head of School surprised the 35/125 honor roll students by calling them from class for a special honor roll breakfast! Hayden was really thrilled to be presented with a certificate and to have the Head of School share a few kind words about each student. He had 6 A’s and 2 B’s. We took Hayden out for a celebration dinner at Mi Casita.

The Head of School announced that when the next interim report card came out on December 12th, all the students who had nothing below a C would be treated to a pizza party at school on the 17th. Interim report cards came out yesterday, and Hayden had 7 A’s and 1 B! How great is that?

In addition, she said that all students who remain on the honor roll all year will be treated to a big surprise at the end of the year. Holden told me right then that his goal was to stay on the honor roll. I want to support him any way I can to help him reach his goal! It’s so great to see him with some motivation again, setting his own goals and working hard to reach them.

Over and over again, I’m seen proof that this was the right direction for Hayden. This was such a positive step for him. I really see him improving his study skills and getting himself on track for success. He even asked to go to the library with Steve the other night so he could take his books along and study for two quizzes he would be taking the next day. That was impressive! And when he took the quizzes, he said he felt really confident that he had done well.

Hayden loves his Design Technology class. It’s a really unique class for the students to work on digital design, and they can even manufacture the products they design using a 3-D printer. Sadly, most of the kids goof off in the class and don’t accomplish much. Hayden gets frustrated working on group projects, because he really enjoys the class himself, and it’s hard to have to tolerate others bringing down your grade because they don’t contribute anything. Finally, he got paired this week with the two students who made the Principal’s List (for straight A’s). He told me that as much as he loved the class before, now he likes it 3 times better because he is working with students who work at a quick pace like him, and they aren’t wasting any time. They are so far ahead that the teacher told them they could work on a special project assignment if they finished up super early, so Hayden is really looking forward to that!

All this to say that things are going really well at school for Hayden. I was selected as one of 3 parents to participate on the Planning Council for the school, so I’ve been attending those meetings and participating in brainstorming sessions on things like potential community service opportunities for the students and ways to meet the schools goals for students. I love having the opportunity there to interact with the Head of School and some of the teachers. I like feeling like I’m still able to be involved in the direction of Hayden’s education.